Caroline Polachek’s expansive range shines through on her latest album
Caroline Polachek's expansive range shines through on her latest album

Desire is simultaneously a euphoric and agonizing sensation; the prospect of romance is a hazy cloud over almost everyoneās day-to-day lives. Indie-pop darling Caroline Polachek is not immune to the transformative force of falling in love, and her new album Desire, I Want To Turn Into You morphs her emotional lyrics into an all-consuming soundscape. The cover presents Polachek crawling on all fours through a New York subway, leaving the throng of daily commuters in order to escape to the sandy paradise that awaits her.Ā
Polachek has been in the music industry for over 20 years, first as half of the indie-pop act Chairlift, then as a solo artist. Her debut album Pang was crafted with the cities of Los Angeles and London in mind, but the pandemic urged her to escape to the Mediterranean with her boyfriend, driving around Rome and then residing below the Mount Etna volcano in Sicily. Polachek cited the volcanoās unpredictability as an influence of the record, and this shows itself on opener āWelcome To My Island,ā a sonic paradise that illustrates Polachekās profound yearning. The albumās lead single āBunny Is A Riderā similarly revels in escapist fantasy with lyrics such as āSatellite canāt find herā and āIām so non-physical.ā
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Polachekās use of negative space on Desire, I Want To Turn Into You positions an otherwise pop-centric record into the realm of the avant-garde. If āWelcome To My Islandā is the lava flowing from Mount Etna, āCrude Drawing Of An Angelā is the cavernous depths of the volcano itself. The albumās closing track āBillionsā is the thesis of Polachekās futuristic vision. A childrenās choir is featured wailing āI never felt so close to youā as Danny L Harleās hyperpop production drones into oblivion. Is Polachek singing from the Vatican, or an alien spaceship?Ā
Many American artists take a contemporary approach to protest music by reflecting upon the tumultuous and upsetting last few years with direct lyricism. Polachekās work does not utilize these techniques, yet is not necessarily apolitical; she turns her sexuality and longing into a radical commentary on the state of our world. When hearing the lyrics āSo many stories we were told about a safety net / But when I look for it, itās just a hand thatās holding mineā on the track āSunset,ā I cannot help but recall COVID-19, except she replaces imagery of death and tragedy into a metaphor of two lovers facing catastrophe together.
While considering the albumās title, it is difficult to tell if Polachek wants to turn into desire as a concept, or transform into her loverās body. The excellent track āBlood And Butterā consists of Polachek singing of diving through her partnerās face into āthe sweetest kind of pain.ā The image is all-at-once monstrous and lovely, much like a tangible mixture of blood and butter would be. While Polachek took to Twitter in January to explain her hatred of Kate Bush comparisons (āSHE is our generationās Kate Bushā¦I am this generationās Caroline Polachek,ā she explained), āBlood And Butterā and its descent into manic bagpipes recalls Bushās āJig Of Lifeā so vividly that I queued the 1985 track directly after.Ā
The driving force behind the diverse tracklist of Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is Polachekās vocal performances. A 2021 New Yorker profile revealed her bel canto opera training, and Polachekās range shows itself on tracks like āSunsetā and āButterfly Net.ā Her expansive and almost desperate notes leave Polachekās desire central and bare; after all, are pain and pleasure not equally crucial to the human experience?